Since the advent of modern skis in the 1940's and 1950's, ski manufacturers have worked, with considerable success, to design and build skis that are torsionally stiff and have longitudinal stiffness that can be selected for each type and size of ski, enabling the customer to select a ski optimized for the type of snow conditions, skiing style and size of that customer. With improvements in skis, skiing has become easier to learn and has become a very popular recreational activity, to the great profit of ski equipment manufacturers and ski resorts.
Even with the improvements made to skis in the last ten or so years, there remain some problems that have resisted the efforts of large ski manufacturers to solve. One such problem is ski chatter when skiing in icy conditions. Ski chatter is a natural result of a stiff ski weighted in the center by the skier's weight and extending stiffly forward and rearward therefrom to the tip and tail, like a big leaf spring. When the tip and/or tail is perturbed by the rough ice surface, the ski vibrates, or "chatters" on the ice. The chatter has a deleterious effect of the ability of the ski edges to hold in the groove they are cutting in the ice, and it can cause the ski to break loose and skid down hill. It also causes a sense of roughness and poor control to the skier.
Ski manufacturers have tried mightily to solve the problem of chatter. Among such attempts to reduce chatter are dampers of various kinds attached to the ski intended to absorb vibration energy and thereby reduce the amplitude and/or reduce the frequency of the vibration. One difficulty with dampers is in achieving optimal damping to reduce chatter sufficiently without reducing the springiness of the ski so much that it would make a "dead" ski. These schemes have been only partially successful and ski chatter remains a problem, particularly with aggressive skiers and ski racers.
Another problem that ski manufacturers have been unable to solve is developing a durable ski base material that can withstand abuse and provide low friction with the snow surface. The ski base now commonly used is sintered polyethylene. It is relatively soft and easily gouged by rocks in the snow, a common occurrence. Gouges can be repaired, at least temporarily, using melted plastic material in a "P-tex candle" but more serious and unrepairable damage can be done if a rock gouges the ski base and hooks the edge structure. The force of the moving ski and skier concentrated at the inside of the edge can pull the edge piece right out of the ski. Although this type of damage is rare, ski manufacturers and skiers would welcome a ski improvement that eliminates this kind of base damage and edge piece pull-out.
Ski edges are made of hard, high strength steel to provide the hardness and strength needed for the severe demands on that structure. The edge occasionally passes over rocks, and must be hard enough to resist gouges and burrs that would affect the ski performance. The edge pieces also contribute some degree of longitudinal stiffness to the ski and that stiffness is difficult to control without changing the size of the edge pieces. Most annoying to skiers is the speed at which the ski edges become dull and rusty. After returning from a hard day of skiing, the skier is obliged to resist the temptation to hop right into the hot tub because he knows that his ski edges will be rusted the next morning if he fails to dry them off before beginning the evening's activities. The rust makes the skis run slower, but more seriously, it attacks first the sharp edge of the edge piece, dulling it quickly. A ski with hard and durable edges that are immune to rust or corrosion would be a welcome improvement to skiers.